# Should Amazon Prime give partial refunds to customers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 18, 2020, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084 "2020-04-18T21:47:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/101 "2020-04-22T20:55:39Z")
To add a thought: What I paid for in Prime membership was not that Amazon would deliver items to me. They already deliver items to anyone who orders. What I paid for (a part of) in Prime membership was free two day shipment on certain items. That was the material term, so I don’t think that **Magiver’s** analogy is apt. To modify my horse manure example, I sell horse manure to anyone that wants it and it has about a week turn around time. However, I offer a Horse Manure Prime (coming to your locality soon! 🙂 ) where people pay me a certain amount of money on the condition that I deliver it in two days. If something happens and I get it there next week, I did perform on the horse manure delivery contract, but I failed to perform under the Prime contract. Right? I think I’m right there. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/102 "2020-04-22T20:59:18Z")
The OP has lost me. My understanding is that Prime provides free shipping on Prime items to Prime members, not that _all_ free shipping is expected to be two-day shipping. (not to mention the caveats on actual versus promised shipping time that allow them a lot of wiggle room). So the only way you can justify your refund request is if they are no longer offering _any_ items with two-day shipping. But it appears to me that they are, in fact, offering two day shipping on “essential” items. So, if all you care about is getting things in two days, only order those items. If you don’t want to buy the items offered with two-day shipping, it isn’t Amazon’s fault you’ve chosen not to receive any items shipped in two days. If this is true, then this is analogous to the theater example up-thread, where you pay for a certain number of free movies at the theater every month and then demand a refund because while they offered movies each week, none were (for example) westerns, so you ended up not going to the theater. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/103 "2020-04-22T21:23:31Z")
> [@peccavi](#): > > The OP has lost me. > > My understanding is that Prime provides free shipping on Prime items to Prime members, not that _all_ free shipping is expected to be two-day shipping. (not to mention the caveats on actual versus promised shipping time that allow them a lot of wiggle room). > > So the only way you can justify your refund request is if they are no longer offering _any_ items with two-day shipping. But it appears to me that they are, in fact, offering two day shipping on “essential” items. So, if all you care about is getting things in two days, only order those items. If you don’t want to buy the items offered with two-day shipping, it isn’t Amazon’s fault you’ve chosen not to receive any items shipped in two days. > > If this is true, then this is analogous to the theater example up-thread, where you pay for a certain number of free movies at the theater every month and then demand a refund because while they offered movies each week, none were (for example) westerns, so you ended up not going to the theater. Disagree. There is a duty of good faith and fair dealing in any contract. Under this analysis if Amazon only offered one item for free two day shipping (say a can of potted meat priced at $300) then they could lawyer their way out by saying that that is the item we chose to offer so piss off. That wasn’t the reasonable understanding of either party when the terms were offered. You also have course of dealing and course of performance. You pay the subscription on the reasonable expectation that their Prime selection is a full panoply of items, household and non-household, essential and non-essential. Sure, not every item in the whole world or not even all of the items on Amazon, but the prior performance informs a customer of what he or she is paying for. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/104 "2020-04-22T22:44:17Z")
Perhaps I’m missing something here, but I’ve been a Prime member for many years, and Amazon offered free two-day _shipping_, not two-day fulfillment. I got some nonessential Prime items today that I ordered two weeks ago. Two days ago, I received the text message saying those items had shipped. Yep, two day shipping. In past years, I ordered items that were not “fulfilled by Amazon” and were not scheduled to arrive in two days from when I placed the order but were slated to arrive two days after they were shipped. Similarly, when some items were sold out, it was a weeks-long wait for the manufacturer to resupply items, but once they shipped, they still arrived in two days. So is your beef that Amazon is not sending items via two-day shipping? If it’s that Amazon promised delivery of all Prime items within two days of the date it was ordered, would you please indicate where I could find this in my agreement? I didn’t see it when I read it over. I did find this: > [@](#): > > • Not all shipping speeds are available for all items and all addresses. For more information, go to Amazon Prime Shipping Benefits - Eligible Items & Addresses. > > • If the item you’re ordering is out of stock or unavailable to ship immediately, the shipping method time starts when the item ships. For example, it will take two business days after an item ships to reach you with Two-Day Shipping. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/105 "2020-04-22T22:49:07Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Well, one way in which the Amazon situation is different is that two-day delivery isn’t THE thing you’re paying for with Prime; it’s one of several benefits. > > Would it be more like if you paid to stay at a hotel, and the pool was unavailable while you were there? I think most people who have a prime membership would feel this is more like what if you couldn’t sleep in the hotel on the dates you’d reserved, but they said you could still use the pool. Things like Prime video and music are nice to have, but not nearly as attractive as the 2-day shipping. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/106 "2020-04-23T00:45:22Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > They’ve been waffling about the 2-day thing since well before the whole shutdown. I can’t find a cite at the moment but I gather it had to do with certain sellers or certain items being too tough to fulfill. You had to check very carefully if it was something you truly needed in 2 days. > > I think they were finding that the program had become too successful - and they were trying to find ways to let people bundle things together for slower shipping. There was the “amazon day” concept where you could opt to get all your stuff on a specific day of the week - which always sounded absurd to me unless you knew you would only be home on a specific day or something. You would basically be volunteering to let them delay your stuff for no benefit to you except maybe fewer boxes to drag inside. > > Their “no rush shipping” was a nice alternative: by saying “yeah, take your time” and letting things come a few days later, you’d get a dollar or so credit toward digital purchases. They bumped that up to 3 dollars on one recent order (I think in response to covid). > > Back to the OP: I think it would be a very nice gesture for them to extend everyone’s membership by 2 months or similar, but I suspect they are under no legal requirement to placate us. I think the Amazon day is designed for those who might work from home on particular days, let’s say you always work from home on Friday. That way the delivery can come when you’re at home and no risk of theft. Also, at my high rise, we’re constantly urged to pick up our packages ASAP, there’s just not enough storage room. So, picking one day for items to be delivered would be ideal for anything non urgent. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/107 "2020-04-23T01:04:41Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > To add a thought: What I paid for in Prime membership was not that Amazon would deliver items to me. They already deliver items to anyone who orders. What I paid for (a part of) in Prime membership was free two day shipment on certain items. > > That was the material term, so I don’t think that **Magiver’s** analogy is apt. To modify my horse manure example, I sell horse manure to anyone that wants it and it has about a week turn around time. However, I offer a Horse Manure Prime (coming to your locality soon! 🙂 ) where people pay me a certain amount of money on the condition that I deliver it in two days. > > If something happens and I get it there next week, I did perform on the horse manure delivery contract, but I failed to perform under the Prime contract. Right? I think I’m right there. if a flood wipes out the road you need to deliver the manure then you have provided the service in a timely manner upon repair of the road. When you talk about freight you see Acts of God on a daily basis. Something as simple as a thunderstorm can delay a flight long enough to miss connection down the line. That’s on God’s nickle. collect if you can. If however there’s a plane mechanical then you may be entitled to a refund based on the contract because that’s the fault of the company. ---
**Author:** ![Kovitlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@Kovitlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kovitlac)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/108 "2020-04-23T15:53:40Z")
Joey P, have you made any effort to contact Amazon asking for any sort of goodwill offering / coupon / partial refund / etc? If you said you did, I’m sorry I missed it. If not receiving a doorknob or other mundane item within 2 days seriously bothers you, I’d suggest looking into cancelling Prime and asking for a partial refund on your last payment. You can’t really complain about not receiving something if you’ve made zero effort to reach out to them. If you don’t cancel, you are accepting the new service as it currently stands. Which, IMO, is exactly what Amazon SHOULD be doing, and I find it exceptionally entitled for someone to complain so much about what is, again IMO, an absolute minor inconvenience. Then again, I personally have little use for Prime, as I just wait until I have a few items to order and hit that free shipping amount. Done and done. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/109 "2020-04-23T17:30:45Z")
nm There’s not much point in me saying the same thing over and over and over. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/110 "2020-04-26T05:50:07Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > Perhaps I’m missing something here, but I’ve been a Prime member for many years, and Amazon offered free two-day _shipping_, not two-day fulfillment. I got some nonessential Prime items today that I ordered two weeks ago. Two days ago, I received the text message saying those items had shipped. Yep, two day shipping. This seems pretty essential. Amazon is still sending non-essential things out of their warehouses quickly, as they always have. They’re just using less warehouse space for nonessentials, which means that they don’t have any to ship for a while. I have a Costco membership. When I go to Costco and the shelves are empty, should I get a refund on my membership? Probably not. Costco never promised to have any particular goods for sale when I show up. If they were jerking me around, maybe I have a case, but they’re clearly making a good faith effort to stock the store. Same with Amazon. They promised to ship what they have quickly, and they are still doing so. When I go try to buy something that’s not essential, it says in stock on day X, and expected arrival X+2. Also, whoever is arguing that Amazon can’t ship because airlines have cut back on freight capacity is, I believe, wrong. Airlines have stopped running many passenger flights because no one is buying tickets. They haven’t cut back on freight and have, I believe, increased freight by converting some passenger planes to freight. Now, freight capacity might still be less than demand because they can’t convert them fast enough, but that’s not the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084/111 "2020-04-26T15:05:19Z")
Since Ys are non profit I think I should get a partial refund for being closed but I don’t expect it . [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-amazon-prime-give-partial-refunds-to-customers/852084.md?page=5)